WASHINGTON - Nene grinned, grabbed the bottom of the net and gleefully swung side to side while waiting for his turn during a post-practice mid-range shooting competition on Thursday with teammate Trevor Booker. Every time Booker made a shot, he moved aside, only to watch in frustration as Nene connected and laughed. Booker held his own but eventually had to concede defeat to the physically imposing Brazilian big man with the stunningly smooth jumper. Nene's defensive aggressiveness, savvy passing and wily gamesmanship vaulted the Washington Wizards to a 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven series against the Chicago Bulls, with Game 3 tonight at Verizon Center . But that jump shot - which Nene spent about 30 minutes mastering with Booker after practice - has repeatedly demoralized the Bulls' vaunted defense and flummoxed Defensive Player of the Year Joakim Noah.

Coppin State senior Christina Epps advanced to the NCAA outdoor track and field championships by placing third in the triple jump with a personal-best 43 feet, 11.75 inches (13.40 meters) on Saturday at the East Regional Preliminary in Jacksonville, Fla. "It means a lot to qualify for nationals," said Epps, who has rebounded from a torn anterior cruciate ligament suffered in 2012 and will compete June 11-14 in Eugene, Ore. "I got there during the indoor season and it's nice to get there for outdoors.

Coppin State senior Christina Epps advanced to the NCAA outdoor track and field championships by placing third in the triple jump with a personal-best 43 feet, 11.75 inches (13.40 meters) on Saturday at the East Regional Preliminary in Jacksonville, Fla. "It means a lot to qualify for nationals," said Epps, who has rebounded from a torn anterior cruciate ligament suffered in 2012 and will compete June 11-14 in Eugene, Ore. "I got there during the indoor season and it's nice to get there for outdoors.

Tennis Tiafoe top-seeded in French Open juniors Francis Tiafoe , 16, of Riverdale Park in Prince George's County will make his French Open debut today in the first round of the junior tournament in Paris. Tiafoe, who grew up training on clay at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, is the top seed and will face 17-year-old wild card Clement Larriere . Tiafoe entered a lower-rung pro tournament in Spain last month, where he won two matches before falling to a 23-year-old Belgian in three sets.

The body of a Glen Burnie woman who apparently jumped from the Bay Bridge last month was found over the weekend by a kayaker near Rock Hall.Sandra Lynn Buckner, 30, abandoned her car on the bridge and jumped May 12, Transportation Authority Police said.Her body was found Saturday on Eastern Neck Island.

There's enough kinetic energy in Jumper to light a thousand houses. Unfortunately, there's no one home in any of them. The central characters in Jumper are able to teleport themselves instantly from one place to another, thus eliminating the need for everything from doorways to jet airliners. OK, that's cool. But watching them do it incessantly for 1 1/2 hours grows weary fast, especially since we're never clued in on such trivial matters as how and why. Worse, the filmmakers only compound the offense by inventing the rules of this new world as they go along.

COLLEGE PARK -- Maryland women's basketball coach Chris Weller has been waiting for Kelley Gibson to live up to her promise, and her patience was rewarded handsomely last night in the Terps' 61-60 win over Georgia Tech at Cole Field House.Gibson, one of the most highly touted players to enter the Maryland program since Olympian Vicky Bullett, scored a career-high 20 points, including the game-winner, an eight-foot pull-up jumper in the lane with eight seconds left.Gibson, who missed virtually all of last season with an anterior cruciate ligament tear in her right knee, scored the last six points for the Terps (6-5, 1-1 in the Atlantic Coast Conference)

By Robert Hilson Jr. and Robert Hilson Jr.,SUN STAFF | November 14, 1996

Donald V. Sweet, a former smoke jumper for the U.S. Forest Service who made more than 50 jumps to extinguish forest fires during his four years with the service, died Friday of cancer at his Glen Arm home. He was 64.In addition to his career, which included work at the Social Security Administration and later a family-run party rental business, Mr. Sweet performed many community activities. He volunteered with Earthwatch, a group of scientists and volunteers who traveled around the world on research projects, primarily archaeological digs.

NEW YORK -- Carl Lewis sprinted 100 meters through 100-degree heat to shatter a meet record yesterday in the third New York Games, then coolly announced that this season might be his last one as a long jumper.With another spectacular closing burst reminiscent of the way he chased Leroy Burrell to the 100-meter world record of 9.90 seconds five weeks earlier at Randalls Island, Lewis came back from a so-so start to win his race in 10.02 seconds.At the finish, Lewis was two strides ahead of runner-up Mike Marsh, his Santa Monica Track Club teammate, and had brought considerable ruination to the former meet record of 10.21, set two years ago by Lee McRae.

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Richard Hamilton's put-back at the buzzer helped No. 2 seed Connecticut narrowly avoid elimination with a dramatic 75-74 victory over No. 11 Washington in an East Regional semifinal last night at Greensboro Coliseum.Hamilton's basket, a fadeaway jumper in the lane, capped a brilliant second half in which he scored 18 points, including nine of Connecticut's last 11 points.The Huskies advanced to tomorrow's regional final against North Carolina, a 73-58 winner over Michigan State.

After she tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee, doctors told Coppin State triple jumper Christina Epps that it wasn't likely she would ever be able to compete at the same level again. A little more than two years later, the fifth-year senior is jumping further than ever and aiming to repeat her All-American status from the indoor season as the NCAA's outdoor track and field championships approach. "They say the worst, and you have to think the best," Epps said.

WASHINGTON - Nene grinned, grabbed the bottom of the net and gleefully swung side to side while waiting for his turn during a post-practice mid-range shooting competition on Thursday with teammate Trevor Booker. Every time Booker made a shot, he moved aside, only to watch in frustration as Nene connected and laughed. Booker held his own but eventually had to concede defeat to the physically imposing Brazilian big man with the stunningly smooth jumper. Nene's defensive aggressiveness, savvy passing and wily gamesmanship vaulted the Washington Wizards to a 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven series against the Chicago Bulls, with Game 3 tonight at Verizon Center . But that jump shot - which Nene spent about 30 minutes mastering with Booker after practice - has repeatedly demoralized the Bulls' vaunted defense and flummoxed Defensive Player of the Year Joakim Noah.

Troy Snyder hit a 19-foot jumper with 2.7 seconds remaining in double overtime, lifting host UMES to a 64-62 victory over Coppin State on Monday. A jumper by Michael Murray tied the game at 62 with 19.7 seconds left before Snyder hit the game-winner, sending the Eagles (5-22, 2-10 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference) to their seventh straight loss. The Hawks (2-20, 2-9) took their largest lead of the second overtime when Snyder hit a jumper that put them up 60-57 with 1:36 to play.

John Carroll senior guard Rodney Elliott passed the buzzer-beating torch to sophomore Elijah Long against Archbishop Spalding on Monday, producing the same positive result that is fast becoming the norm for the Patriots. Coming out of a timeout with 18 seconds left and the scored tied, the visiting Cavaliers put extra attention on Elliott, who swiftly swung the ball over to the right side for Long to nail a 3-pointer as time expired to give No. 7 John Carroll a thrilling 53-50 win over No. 5 Spalding.

The 10th-ranked Maryland women's basketball team turned to its two most indispensable players and received all-around contributions from a freshman Thursday night to run away from North Carolina State, 82-62, at Comcast Center. Senior forward Tianna Hawkins scored 16 of her game-high 26 points in the second half and grabbed a season-high 17 rebounds, and junior forward Alyssa Thomas added 18 points, seven rebounds and a game-high six assists to push Maryland to a fourth straight win and its 10th victory in 11 games.

Anne Arundel County police said they found the vehicle they believe was involved in a fatal hit-and-run crash that killed a Glen Burnie man last week. Police said they located the suspected vehicle Tuesday morning in the driveway of a home in the 8100 block of Lea Road in Pasadena, and seized it. They said the operator, Donovan Scott Bailey, contacted police later in the day, and was questioned. He was released and charges are pending, according to police. Killed in the crash last Thursday evening was pedestrian John Junior Stewart, 52, who police said apparently was not in a crosswalk when struck by a vehicle eastbound on Mountain Road near Jumpers Hole Road.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Treg Lee, who tied the game in the first overtime, scored with four seconds left in the second extra period yesterday to give No. 2 Ohio State a 97-95 victory over No. 4 Indiana.Lee's 10-foot baseline jumper was a duplicate of the shot that tied the dramatic showdown in the first overtime and enabled the Buckeyes to take over first place in the Big Ten Conference.Jim Jackson scored a career-high 30 points for Ohio State (22-1, 12-1), including the basket that tied it at the end of regulation play.

LAUREL -- Maryland steeplechase star Von Csadek, who is campaigning in England, was coughing at Wantage, Berkshire, yesterday, but it was considered only a minor setback.The jumper appears to be on course for the King George VI Stakes Dec. 26. That is Boxing Day in England, traditional day for the race at Kempton.The coughing will keep Von Csadek from running in a minor race at Cheltenham tomorrow. He is 2-for-3 since arriving in England Aug. 12.It would seem logical that Von Csadek is in England for the Grand National at Aintree.

Et cetera Prahalis helps Mercury edge Mystics Samantha Prahalis hit a jumper with 23.2 seconds to play to help the host Phoenix Mercury to an 80-77 win over the Washington Mystics. Prahalis had 15 points and seven rebounds, DeWanna Bonner added 19 points and seven boards while Krystal Thomas donated 15 and six for the Mercury, which ended a three-game losing streak. Michelle Snow posted 21 points and nine rebounds while Monique Currie had 20 points and six boards for the Mystics, who have lost their past two games.

Fans who rush a professional sports field have to weigh the pros and cons - a few moments of glory offset by spending time in a jail cell and possibly facing criminal charges. But while the cape-wearing, clad-in-Batman-undies spectator who disrupted the Orioles' Opening Day victory has received plenty of notoriety - 100,000 views and counting for a video posted to YouTube, a write-up on the sports blog Deadspin and being a topic of discussion on morning radio - he wasn't charged for the game-halting stunt.